For most chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, asthma, AIDS, diabetes, or hypertension, patients generally receive medical suggestions for periodic return clinical visits (such as every four to twelve weeks). The severity of these diseases may increase or decrease before they see the medical provider. However, periodic outpatient clinical services or long-period prescription can only provide passive defenses, instead of active controlling by doctors or medical hospital for any possible serious situation of the patient.
Further, outpatient services cannot distribute medical resources efficiently. Some chronic diseases, (e.g., asthma) are largely influenced by environmental factors. These factors including, e.g., change of atmospheric temperature, weather moisture, or the amount of pollutant, may cause acute exacerbation of asthma or even respiratory distress. However, given the outpatient nature of treatment for such chronic diseases, doctors or the hospitals are often unable to provide immediate aid in the event of an unforeseen health emergency.
While, home care visits and emergency medical services are available to care for the chronic disease patients, such services are generally very costly. In an effort to reduce some of the expense, remote healthcare delivery systems have also been implemented. For example, telemedicine has been around since the 1970s and refers to health care delivery where physicians examine distant patients through the use of telecommunications technologies. However, telemedicine has failed to gain significant traction in the marketplace for a variety of reasons, such as a disconnect between patient and technology and poor selection of underlying infrastructure.